


88719

by secooper87



Series: The Child of Balime [7]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Torchwood
Genre: Horror, Humor, Mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-02
Updated: 2013-05-10
Packaged: 2017-12-10 03:58:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 13,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/781499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secooper87/pseuds/secooper87
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Buffy knows.  Any high school worth its salt has to be filled with monsters trying to kill you.  So... why isn't Seo's?!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The man walked around the basement of the school, his eyes bent in frustration.

"So close!" he muttered. "So close. But not good enough."

The woman at the other end of the room looked up. "Have patience. We knew this wouldn't be easy."

"But we nearly have it!" said the man, spinning on her. "Have nearly worked it all out! Just this one factor keeps escaping us. This one tiny variable…"

"We'll figure it out," the woman assured him, looking down at her computations, again. "Don't worry. We'll end the world soon enough."

"End the world?" scoffed the man. He hit his fist down against the desk. "I don't just want to end the world. I won't rest until every last one of them is dead. Has died in the most horrible, miserable agony!"

"Oh, they will," the woman assured him. "The world will end. Everyone will die. And — by the time we're ready — nobody will be able to stop us."

* * *

Okay, so Buffy was new at the parent-thing.

Which was probably the reason that, when Seo had raced up to her, all excited and bubbly, and said, in a rushed voice, that she wanted to go to school, Buffy's first comment had been, "Why?!"

High school, in Buffy's opinion, sucked.

She'd spent basically her entire high school experience in schools that honestly tried to do their best to murder her. Or… getting kicked out of schools that honestly tried to do their best to murder her.

Seo was 98. And was very careful to make sure she didn't exist on any records, anywhere. Which meant she didn't, technically, have to go to school.

Seo's face fell.

That was when Buffy realized that, as a responsible parent-like person, she should be encouraging her daughter to go to school instead of encouraging her away from it.

"I mean… right, yeah, school!" said Buffy. "Let's do the school thing!"

Thus had begun the official nightmare of… figuring out the British Educational System.

"I mean… what the hell is this stuff, anyways?" Buffy demanded of her Torchwood pals. "'Tripartite System'? Wasn't that outlawed in South Africa or something?"

"That's… apartheid," Ianto pointed out. "And very different."

Giles was helpful. To a point.

"No, 'public school' doesn't necessarily mean public school," he explained to her, flipping through books. He thunked a large book on the history of the British Educational System open in front of her. "See? These are all called 'public schools', yet they are actually what you'd consider to be private schools."

"Huh?" said Buffy.

But when Buffy eventually, with a huge amount of help from friends, came back with a nice list of schools that Seo might like, Seo dismissed them all with the wave of her hand.

"I want to go to this one," she said, handing over a brochure.

Buffy flipped through the school brochure, a little curiously. 'Chelsea Downs', an independent school in the Chelsea area of London, which seemed to offer a very high level of education for all students, along with special treatment for the brighter students, who could have their own personalized course instruction.

Actually, it didn't look bad.

Until Buffy saw the price.

Her jaw dropped. "Oh, my God!" she shouted. She looked up at Seo. "We can't afford this!"

"Yes, we can," said Seo. "I can just hack into the computers monitoring your bank account, and trick the system into thinking—"

"No!" said Buffy, grabbing Seo by the arm to make sure that she didn't zip off and do it, anyways. "On no account is there going to be any… bank-account-hacking. It's like stealing." She paused. "No, wait, scratch that. It _is_ stealing."

Seo gave her a long, hurt look. Those big brown eyes turning into pleading, puppy-dog like eyes.

"Couldn't you go somewhere that's a little less expensive?" Buffy asked.

"But… that's the school Alison's going to," Seo said, pointing to the brochure.

Oh.

Damn.

That explained a lot about why Seo wanted to go to school in the first place. And meant that Buffy was officially screwed.

"Why don't you apply for a bursary?" Tosh proposed, next time that Buffy was at Torchwood. "She's bright, after all."

"Apply for a nursery?" asked Buffy.

"Bursary," said Owen, chucking a piece of alien tech at Buffy, who caught it, and put it down beside her. "A grant given by the school to help pay for the educational fees."

"Oh, like a scholarship!" said Buffy.

That seemed like a great idea. Seo was super smart, and fated to completely Willow-her-way through any test handed to her. For sure.

Seo didn't like the idea.

"But… doesn't that mean more people will find out I exist?" she asked. "I don't want people to find out I exist."

"If you go to school, people are going to find out, anyways," Buffy pointed out to her.

"No, Alison and I have worked that out!" said Seo, very proudly. "We're creating a smoke-screen filter. If you're not looking for me, specifically, you won't see me. And after I'm done at school, I'll just wipe the records. Like I've been doing with everything else!"

Buffy sighed.

"Look, why don't I just go to school," said Seo, "and we can sort out money later?"

"Because that's not how the world works," said Buffy.

She eventually wound up ranting about this to Giles. Trying to figure out what the hell she was supposed to do, with Seo ready to march into school and pretend she'd paid, or screw with some bank computers and cause a serious financial meltdown by mid-2008, or…

Giles handed her a check.

Buffy stopped. Froze. Stared at the check. "I… can't accept this."

"Your daughter wants to go to school," said Giles. "So I'll send her to school." He gave Buffy a smile. "Really. It's the least I can do for you two."

* * *

"…full scale demon," Buffy explained, as she drove her daughter to her first day of school, "then you blow up the building. But _only_ for a full scale demon! If it's a little one, then you'll want a concentrated group of smaller explosives."

Seo didn't look like she was paying any attention. Her eyes fixed on the building before her, her fingers fidgeting nervously with her backpack.

"Sontarans — back of the neck," said Buffy, pulling up to the curb. "Daleks — aim for the eyestalk. Vampires, stake through the heart — left side, no right-hearted vampires."

"I'll remember," said Seo, racing out of the car.

"And if you see a—!" Buffy began shouting after her.

But Seo had already wandered off.

Buffy watched, her hands clutching the steering wheel a little too tightly, her breath coming a little too fast. "She'll be fine," Buffy told herself, backing up. "Totally fine." She put the car back into drive, and pulled back into traffic. "It's not like _every_ high school out there is full of evil things trying to end the world."

She waited a few minutes, letting this statement sink in.

"Oh, who am I kidding?!" Buffy shouted. "They're all like that!"

.

.

.

* * *

**_Two months later…_ **

* * *

"…nothing!" Buffy was saying, as they stayed in the Torchwood van, watching from a distance as the alien monster that looked a little like a pig with caterpillar legs loitered outside the coffee shop. "Nothing at all! I mean, that's got to be suspicious, right?"

Everyone in the Torchwood van exchanged looks.

"So… you're suspicious," Owen confirmed, "because no one at Seo's school has tried to kill her, yet?"

"Exactly!" said Buffy. "I mean, in LA, it was vampires this and hell demons that. And then Sunnydale was all with the hyena people and apocalypses. And then, when Dawn went to school, there was Hellmouth-opening and First-taunting and skin-peeling flesh-monsters, and… and…" Buffy shook her head. "With Seo! Nothing!"

"Actually," said Gwen, "I'm pretty sure a monster-free school experience is the norm in most of the world."

Buffy stared at the Torchwood team. "Uh… have you been hanging out around the same trouble-magnet Seo that I have?"

A look of slight unease passed across the team's faces. But they quickly shrugged it off.

"Well, think of it like this," Gwen offered. "At least you don't have to worry about whether or not she's safe at—"

"Jack," Tosh cut in. "Rift spike, nearby."

The alien in front of the coffee shop checked his watch, then began to stroll over towards where the rift spike had happened.

"That'll be our rendezvous," said Jack, grabbing up his gun and jumping out of the car.

Everyone else followed suit, leaping from the car with guns drawn. Or everyone except Buffy, who took one look at her gun, rolled her eyes, and left it in the van. Screw guns. Hand-to-hand combat was way more reliable.

The alien noticed them. And began to run.

"I guess… if she's having fun," Buffy said, as they chased the alien through the streets, "it can't hurt for her to get some formal school credential type things." She flipped out of the way of the alien's gunfire, as it began shooting laser blasts back at them. "And it's good for her to meet other people her own… maturity level."

"Buffy, we're all very happy to hear that Seo's doing well," Jack said. "Now could you please catch up to that alien and tackle him for us?"

Buffy cringed. "Oh. Yeah. Sorry. Forgot."

Then, in one leap, jumped over the alien's head, and landed just in front of him. Kicked the gun out of his hand, blocking a punch and then expertly twisting him onto the ground.

"Thank you," said Jack, as he cuffed the alien drug-smuggler. Then handed him over to the other members of his team. "Get him back to the cells."

The heavy thump of drums from Buffy's pocket, and she took out her cell. Answered the call. "Buffy, here."

She froze. Listening to the voice on the other end. Her expression sliding from cheerful into concern, as she continued to listen. She raised up a hand to Jack and the others, as she stepped aside, began to speak in a hushed voice with whoever was on the other end.

"That sounds like trouble," Ianto muttered, looking on at her, as they all piled the alien into the back of the Torchwood van.

"What?" said Gwen. She glanced back at Buffy, herself. Frowning, a little. "You don't think the school's actually been overrun with aliens, do you?"

"More likely," Owen chimed in, as he closed up the van, "it's a case of hysterical teenager crying into the phone, because she doesn't have the right makeup and shoes and fit in with the popular crowd."

Tosh cringed. She knew what it was like to be picked on, at school, just because you were a little too clever.

"Or one of the teachers has worked out that Seo's an alien," Ianto added. "That's always a possibility."

Buffy ended the call. Stood there, a moment, just staring into the distance, a completely stunned look on her face. As if she couldn't quite come to terms with what she'd just heard.

Gwen, with only a hesitant glance at the others, raced up to her. Leaned down, so she was at Buffy's eye-level.

"Hey, whatever it is, it's going to be all right," Gwen told Buffy. "She'll get through it. Okay?"

Buffy stared at Gwen, for a moment not even registering that she was there. Then, her eyes fixed on Gwen, and she tried to speak. But just… couldn't.

"It's… not invading aliens, is it?" Gwen asked.

Buffy shook her head. "No. No, it's… it was the Headmaster. He wants to talk to me."

Oh, no.

Was Ianto right? Had they discovered that Seo wasn't human?

Buffy stared right into Gwen's eyes. "It's Seo," she said. "He wants to kick her out. Because she's failing out of school."


	2. Chapter 2

"How could you be failing?" Alison cried, in Buffy and Seo's apartment, after school that day. "You're cleverer than I am!"

Seo fidgeted, uncomfortably, in place. But didn't answer.

Buffy crossed her arms. "Are you being all with the smart-aleckiness, again, like you usually are?"

Still, no answer.

Alison sighed, sat down on the couch. "All right, maybe… maybe it's because she's too clever," Alison suggested to Buffy. "I mean, just the other day, she was telling me that the speed of light wasn't necessarily constant if you focused it through some different dimensional filters. Maybe… she's putting down answers like that, and that's why she's failing."

"Yes!" Seo said, leaping on Alison's answer. "That's what it is. It has to be! I'm not an idiot. I'm just too clever for the school!"

"You're failing math," said Buffy, with a sigh. "Math, Seo. There's only one answer, in math."

Seo looked away, a blush on her cheeks. "Maybe… I'm just bad at maths."

"Oh, yeah?" said Alison. "What are the coordinates of the four points, on a Lemniscate curve, for which the tangent line is horizontal?"

"Square root of six over two," Seo answered, with only a second to think about it, "square root of two over two. Square root of—"

"And you just worked that out in your head," said Alison. "Differential calculus. You solved differential calculus in your head."

Seo paused a moment, thinking it through. "I didn't… _solve_ it, exactly," she said. "I… just… sort of… guessed."

Alison gave Seo the same pointed stare.

"Well, I thought about the problem," Seo explained, "how the shapes all fit together, how the mathematics reflected on the greater universe as a whole, the applications and natural progressions and patterns that accompanied it, and then… guessed what the answer had to be."

Buffy thought she was starting to understand the problem, here. "You can't show any work."

Seo looked up at Buffy, confused. "What do you mean… 'show any work'? What's 'work'?"

"Well, when us mere mortals solve tricky maths problems," said Alison, "we have to write out all the steps, to show how we solved for x and arrived at our answer." She grabbed up the failed exams that Seo had been hiding in the darkest depths of her room. "But you just write down the answers, because you know them instinctively. The teachers assume you're cheating, or copying from someone else… and… don't… know…"

Alison stopped. Stared.

Buffy felt her confidence fade a little. "What?"

Alison squinted at the exam. Then turned the page. Turned the page, again. Turned back to the first page, studying the numbers, intently.

"I'm guessing that means… the 'showing work' part isn't what's messing her up," Buffy said.

"No," Alison agreed. "Not… close." She looked up at Seo, bewildered. "What maths problems were _you_ solving?"

"The… problems… on the exam," Seo said.

Alison scooted over to her. Finger on the page. "See this equation?" she said, pointing to the problem. "Y equals 3 x squared over 24, solve for x. That's linear algebra. Easy." She shifted her finger down to the spot where Seo had carefully written down her own answer. "And this is _your_ answer. Which seems to include… both a gradient calculation… and an integral sign!"

Seo didn't answer. Just bit her lower lip.

"How did you wind up with an integral?" Alison asked. "Was dividing 24 by 3 too easy?"

Seo curled up into a ball, on her end of the couch. Buried her face into her knees. "Everyone else says I'm the thickest person at school," she muttered. "Can't you just accept it and move on?"

Buffy's jaw dropped. She looked over at Alison, who suddenly seemed a little sheepish.

"They… actually… do say that," Alison muttered.

All right. That was it. If Seo was too clever for school, and needed a tutor who knew all about what human teachers liked to get as answers on tests, and what alien stuff Seo was actually putting down — there was only one person Buffy knew who could do that.

"One second," Buffy said, walking into her own bedroom, pulling out her cell. She dialed the number on speed dial, and the moment the familiar voice answered, she said, "Hey, Tosh? I think I need your help."

* * *

Tosh looked through Seo's exams, a frown on her face. Outside the hub, the others were racing around, chasing down the latest alien visitor to Earth without her.

That had been Buffy's offer to them. Extra Buffy-time, free of charge. In exchange for letting Tosh stay behind and tutor her daughter, every so often.

"…I mean, why does my alienness mean I'm supposed to automatically be really clever?" Seo continued to rant. "There are plenty of thick-headed aliens out there. Maybe I'm just one of them!"

Tosh looked up at Seo, a little incredulous. "You don't actually believe that."

Seo kicked her feet against the metallic floor of the hub, her eyes fixed on the glowing lights illuminating the computer desk. The glum hopelessness in her eyes said more than enough.

"Seo, this is brilliant," Tosh said, sitting down beside her. Showing her the exam she was looking over. "The mathematics you've sketched out, here — I don't know why you're using them to solve simple linear equations, but… they're unbelievably complex. If you were to use some of these sorts of number theories in the right way, you could rewrite the whole of physics as we know it."

In fact, Tosh was taking a number of mental notes as she went. She already thought she could use some of this for her own work at Torchwood.

Seo didn't answer. Just kept kicking her legs beneath the table.

"You're clearly not an idiot," Tosh said, turning the page. "Our job, right now, is to just… figure out some way to make all the multi-dimensional intricacies of the mathematics you've written out translate to… something a normal, human, secondary-school teacher would actually be able to understand."

"But… I can't," said Seo, quietly. "I told you. I'm stupid."

"Like… let's take this problem!" said Tosh, selecting an exam question at random, pointing at it. "Sine x squared over the square root of tangent x minus three equals 25, solve for x." Her finger trailed down the page. "And you wrote…"

Tosh stopped. Stared.

"I wrote the wrong answer," Seo supplied, glumly. "Thick-headed Seo. Can't show any work. Can't solve an equation. Can't even guess the right answers."

Tosh turned to her computer. Typed frantically at the keyboard, and a series of computations popped up. She picked up the exam, and compared the two sets of equations.

"But that's… exactly the same… as…" Tosh breathed.

Seo looked up, a little puzzled. "What?"

Tosh turned on Seo, her voice suddenly a little edgy, as she thrust the exam under Seo's face. "That," she said. "That equation, there. Why did you write _that_?"

Seo took the exam from Tosh. Looked it over, with her brow furrowed. "I don't know," she said. She looked up at Tosh. "That doesn't have anything to do with what they asked, does it?"

"Do you know what these equations are?" Tosh demanded.

"The… equations used to detect spikes in temporal rift activity?" Seo said.

Yes. Yes, it was. Of course it was. And of course… Seo would know that!

"This is top secret, Seo," said Tosh, waving the paper at her. "Nothing like this is ever supposed to leave Torchwood. So why did you write it down on a secondary school maths exam?"

Seo stared down at the paper. Opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.

Tosh turned to the next exam. This one a pop-quiz. Sure enough, Tosh recognized the calculations Seo had written down as an answer to one of the problems.

"And this!" said Tosh. "These are the computations needed to create the magnetic dispersal chamber we discovered, two and a half weeks ago!"

Seo looked up at her. Still unable to speak.

Tosh began flipping through the exams with increasing alarm. Not just the maths exams, but… science… history… English…

Torchwood secrets. Everywhere. Everywhere Tosh looked, she found Torchwood's secrets.

"…'this section of the book appears to be illustrating the concept of having your soul drained and twisted through a metal gauntleted resurrection glove'!" Tosh read, from an English exam. She turned to history. "'Charles I might have had a hard time dealing with an alien that was actually a sentient gas that fed off orgasmic energy'." She slammed down the papers on the top of the desk, leveling an angry glare at Seo.

Seo opened and closed her mouth a few times, but still couldn't say anything.

"Are you trying to get yourself retconned?" Tosh demanded. "Are you trying to make us angry with you?" She slammed her fist down, and Seo jumped. "What are you trying to prove?"

"I… don't know!" Seo insisted.

Tosh stared at her. There was a look of utter terror in the girl's eyes, and while Tosh and the others were used to Seo's tricks and manipulations and deceits, she wasn't usually this good at hiding the sheer thrill she got from outwitting them all.

Tosh sighed. Gathered up the papers and exams. "I have to show these to Jack," she said.

Seo's eyes went wide, and she grabbed at Tosh's arm. "Don't!" she pleaded. "I'll… I'll be good! I promise!"

Tosh just shook her head.

Seo was spilling Torchwood's secrets. That meant… Seo's failing out of school was no longer a domestic affair.

This was a Torchwood affair, now.


	3. Chapter 3

Jack just stared at the exams he'd been handed. His jaw literally dropping, as he read through the answers.

"They really are all secrets from Torchwood, then?" Gwen asked. She shifted, uncomfortably, in place. Glancing down, through the window of Jack's office, at the hunched over figure of Seo, who was facing a very upset-looking Buffy.

Jack slapped down the exam he was looking at onto his desk. "Let's just say," he said, "that if Seo's teachers suspected — for one minute — that anything she'd written here was real… we'd all be in very big trouble."

"But… why would she do it?" asked Gwen.

"Because she can?" Jack guessed. "Because she's trying to show off? Because she feels she has to prove something?" He leaned over his desk, his hands clasped together, his eyes staring down at nothing. "I don't even know how to handle something like this."

"I thought… retcon?" said Tosh.

Jack shook his head. "This goes way beyond retcon." He grabbed up a science exam, and handed it to Tosh. "That first page," he said. "It's not a Torchwood secret. It's diagramming, in mathematical terms, how to create a trigger-mechanism for an alien bomb."

Tosh's eyes went wide, as she looked at the equations.

"She hasn't just been writing _our_ secrets," said Jack. "She's been writing down dangerous secrets that nobody should ever know about. If one person who saw this exam took these equations seriously..." He shook his head. "I don't even want to think about that."

"So… what?" asked Owen. "Dump her in the freezers like all the other alien traitors?"

"Owen!" hissed Gwen.

"Look, darling," said Owen. "I'm just saying what we're all thinking, here."

"He might be right," Jack admitted. "Spilling secrets like this… it's a breach of every Torchwood rule and regulation in the handbook. There's no precedent for this."

"Why… the third question?" Ianto asked.

Everyone looked back at him. He was standing a ways off from the group, looking through a stack of Seo's English exams, a frown on his face. He noticed everyone else looking at him, and hesitated.

"I was just noticing," Ianto explained, gesturing at the exams, "the information that specifically relates to Torchwood. She always writes it into… the third question of every exam."

Everyone looked at everyone else. Then, in a suddenly frantic scramble, they began reaching for exams, homework assignments, anything they could find. Thumbing through them, furiously.

"Third question," said Gwen. "Henry VIII's third wife was actually a weevil in disguise, named Lucy."

"Third question, here, too," Owen put in. "The boiling point of water varies depending on whether or not there are powerful alien elements in the air, originating in the Orion system."

"I remember that one," said Tosh.

"It's the third question everywhere," Jack muttered. "Always the third question. Every single time." He stared at the papers in his hands, trying to think it all through.

"But what does that mean?" asked Gwen.

"Torchwood three," Jack muttered. He turned on his feet, his face angry, his eyes dark. "It means," he said, his voice low and threatening, "that she's doing this specifically to get our attention."

He stormed out of his office, pushing past everyone in the way, racing down the steps towards the central part of the hub — right where Seo and Buffy were waiting.

Seo looked up at him. Her eyes wide. Seeing his face furious, she huddled up a little tighter into herself.

Jack stood there, his arms crossed. "So?"

Seo didn't answer.

"I'm waiting, Seo," Jack said. "I can wait as long as it takes. But you're not getting out of here until I find out what you're up to."

Seo looked over to Buffy, with pleading eyes. But Buffy didn't look like she was in any mood to defend Seo's decisions.

Seo turned back to Jack. Her jaw trembling a little. "I… just… didn't know any of the answers," she said, in a small voice. "I'm stupid. I panicked. And I didn't want you to know I was stupid, so I wrote down something I remembered from Tosh's computer, and hoped you'd think I was really clever, and—"

"Nice try," Jack cut in. "How about the truth, now?"

Seo said nothing for a long moment.

"I… don't know," she admitted.

"No, you _did_ know," Buffy said. "That's why we're mad at you." She turned to Jack. "I've been quizzing her. She knows the correct answers to all of those math problems just fine. Whatever she's written down, she did it purposely."

"No!" Seo insisted. "I didn't. I told you. I'm not that bright. I didn't even know the things I wrote down were from Torchwood! I—"

"What's the equation Tosh worked out, last week, to restructure those proton accelerating nanoforms?" Jack asked.

"Two sine squared y over delta x minus z," said Seo.

Tosh, coming up from behind, frowned, a little. "Jack…"

"See?" said Jack, ignoring Tosh. "You _do_ know it. Now, come on. Truth."

"Jack!" Tosh said, a little louder.

Jack swung around, to face her.

"That's not the right answer," said Tosh.

Everyone in the Hub froze.

"What she said," Tosh explained. "It would have been right… if the nanoforms actually _had been_ proton accelerating. But we found out they weren't before we made the calculations, remember?"

Some of the hardness fell away from Jack's face. He looked between Tosh and Seo, noting the way that Seo had frozen against the far wall, her entire body tense, as if she'd just been caught out.

And an idea struck him all at once.

"Seo," Jack said. "What happened last time you came into Torchwood?"

Seo blinked. Then blinked again. Then tried to back further into the far wall. Opened her mouth, but no words came out.

"You don't know, do you?" asked Jack, in a softer voice.

Seo planted an irritated look on her face. "Of course I know!" she insisted. "I'm just as normal as everyone else! We… we… we fought aliens! Using a lot of guns!"

"And what about yesterday?" asked Jack. "What did you have for breakfast? What did you learn at school? What mischief did you and Alison get up to, at lunch?"

Seo opened her mouth to answer. But nothing came out.

Buffy stared at her. A little confused. "How would you not remember…?"

Jack stepped over to her. Leaned down, so he was at her eye level. "You honestly have no idea why you've been writing any of that down on those exams, do you?"

Seo hesitated. Then, reluctantly, shook her head.

Buffy stared at Jack, a little dumbstruck. "But that doesn't make sense!" she said. "I mean, she understands all those equations she wrote down. She knows what the correct answers are supposed to be! Why—"

"It's automatic," said Jack, getting up. "The effect of using a drug designed for humans on someone without a fully human brain." He crossed his arms, and muttered something about B 67 beneath his breath.

"Retcon?" asked Gwen. "But… I thought you said we couldn't retcon Seo for this."

Jack sighed. "We can't," he said. "But I think someone's already beaten us to the punch."


	4. Chapter 4

"I've looked into it," said Ianto. "Someone's definitely been stealing retcon from Torchwood. Stealing it for a while, now. Beginning shortly after Gwen joined the team."

Jack folded his arms, absorbing all of this.

"Problem is," Ianto continued, his eyes flicking back to the computers, "it appears… every date on which retcon was stolen… precisely coincides with when Buffy and Seo turned up, in Cardiff, to help us." He turned back to Jack. "I don't know if someone's been retconning her, sir. But I'm pretty sure… she's been retconning herself."

A look of utter shock came across Jack's face. He rushed forward, leaned down in front of the computer. Staring at the data. "But… but why…?"

He could see for himself that Ianto was right. There was a direct correlation.

Every time Buffy and Seo showed up, retcon got stolen.

"Retcon isn't designed for her brain!" said Jack. "She knows that! She knows the risks! Why would she—?"

"Buffy did say," Ianto put in, "that it seemed suspicious that nothing had happened to Seo at that school, so far."

Jack stood up straight. His eyes never leaving the computer monitor.

If there was something happening to her… at that school… on a regular basis…

Something so bad she needed to forget…

"What if someone… found out," Ianto proposed, "that she was an alien? She doesn't show up on machines. The only way to understand her physiology… would be to slice her open… and see how she worked."

Jack turned on his heels. "I'll get Owen to give her a full physical examination," he said. "Look for physical injuries, things she might be trying to hide." He hurried towards his office. "Meanwhile… I'm going to check in and find out what's really been happening at that school."

* * *

"So you noticed nothing odd going on?" Jack asked. "Nothing Seo mentioned to you and told you to keep secret? No unaccounted for disappearances? No unusual behavior?"

Alison shifted, uncomfortably, in place. Rubbing the band-aid on her arm, where the Torchwood team had drawn blood. She kept glancing at the Torchwood hub, trying to take it all in, while still attempting to think through the answers to their questions.

"No, nothing…" Alison began. Then stopped. Hesitated. "Hold up. Is that an actual for-real pterodactyl?"

Jack cleared his throat.

Alison snapped her head around, grimacing. "Sorry. Questions." She pondered it over, carefully. "I don't… think so?" she offered. Then shrugged. "Well, just… Seo disappears all the time without telling anyone where she is or what she's up to. That's normal. So it's hard to tell."

"Has she been feeling drowsy, recently?" asked Jack.

"Not when she's around me," said Alison. "Although, rumor has it she can't keep her eyes open in science. But that makes sense. What we're learning in science is probably far beneath her, anyways."

Jack jotted down a note on the pad of paper in front of him.

"She _has_ been getting on my parents' nerves a lot," Alison volunteered. She grinned. "I'm actually a bit proud of that one. Apparently, according to them, Seo is a 'lunatic', a 'conspiracy nut', and an 'all around bad influence' on me. Although, really, I think they're just overreacting to that thing with the cafeteria food…"

"Cafeteria food?" Jack asked.

Alison shrugged it off. "Oh, Seo can't stomach cafeteria food," she said. "She thinks it's toxic or something. The first week of school, she kept 'accidentally' making me spill my own food all over the floor."

Jack turned to Ianto, expectantly.

"On it," Ianto said, turning and heading out the door.

Alison looked between Jack and Ianto. "What? You think they've drugged the food?"

"Never hurts to check," said Jack.

Alison laughed. "Right, thanks, Mr. Sherlock Holmes." She leaned back in her seat, crossing her legs. "Look, if you want to check something, why don't you figure out what's going on with her in gym?"

For a few seconds, Jack said nothing. "In… gym?"

"That's where I'd start," said Alison. She shrugged. "I mean, yes, she's failing out of school. But she's brilliant at sport. Energy, reflexes, speed and instinct and a precise use of mathematics to calculate force and velocities and arcs and things. So… why would the Headmaster want to kick someone out of his school that could go on to be the next big football star?"

Jack thought this through. Then glanced up at Tosh, who turned to the computer, typing furiously, trying to investigate.

Alison stared down at her hands. "Actually," she continued, "why didn't _I_ think of that, before now? That's the sort of thing I'm usually jumping at."

Jack leaned in, closer. "According to Owen, someone's been giving you a mild sedative for some time, now," he admitted. "Regularly. Just enough to stop you asking questions. Keep you docile."

Alison blinked. "Why?" she asked. "You think someone's been erasing my memory, too?"

"No, the results on the blood test revealed no Compound B 67," said Owen, entering the hub with a chart in his hands. "Or anything else that could be used as a short term amnesia drug." He stopped, drumming his fingers against the back of the clipboard. "Seo's blood, as usual, yielded no results at all."

"But Buffy's search did," said Jack. "Retcon pills. In Seo's rucksack. We think she's been taking them at school."

Alison glanced around herself. "Where is Seo?"

"Safe," said Jack.

Alison's eyes fixed back on Jack. Her voice getting low, threatening. "What did you do to her?"

"We've done nothing, Alison," said Jack. "Really. Everything that's happened, she's done to herself. We're just trying to work out why."

"Trying to work out why she's blanking her memory?" Alison challenged. "Or trying to work out why she's making sure you know about it?"

Torchwood all looked at one another.

Jack's lips formed a thin line.

"I'll admit, I don't know how this 'retcon' of yours works," said Alison. "But I'm guessing it doesn't usually make people write Torchwood secrets onto their maths exams."

"The compound isn't designed for Seo's brain," said Jack. "It wouldn't—"

"Third question," Tosh muttered.

Everyone turned to face her.

Tosh stopped typing, her eyes looking around at all the others, nearby. "Well, I just thought… if it wasn't deliberate… why'd she only include Torchwood secrets on the third question?"

Jack leaned back in his seat, his face growing even more worried.

"Right, so, according to Alison," Owen said, "Seo purposely programmed herself, on a subconscious level, to spill the beans about everything we've been working on, here at Torchwood. Which makes her a criminal." He gave Alison a steady stare. "Some friend you turned out to be."

"I'm saying those exams are a message," Alison snapped. "To you. If someone out there knows Seo's an alien, they'd take her exams seriously, right? And the only reason Seo would compromise Torchwood security like that is if—"

"We've already been infiltrated," muttered Jack. "And she was trying to warn us."

Tosh turned back to her typing.

Alison gave Jack a pointed, challenging look. "So," she said. "Where's Seo? And what did you do to her?"

Jack opened his mouth to reply, when a scream rang out through the Torchwood Hub. Everyone looked at one another. Then down at the cell area, where the scream had come from.

Tosh flicked a few keys on the computer, and video footage of the cells showed up. Video footage of a cell containing Buffy, knelt down on the ground, looking at a patch of thin air, beside her. And a black-haired woman that Alison had never seen, before, who looked like she'd just been pushed to the ground.

Jack and Owen jumped to their feet, Jack shouting a, "Tosh, keep Alison here!" before racing towards the cells. Alison looked back at Tosh, still by the computers. Wanting to jump up and race to the cells, now that she knew that was where Seo was being kept.

But Alison knew Torchwood all carried guns. Seo had told her so. One step in the wrong direction, and Alison could wind up with a bullet in the head.

"Well?" said Tosh, very quietly, not looking at Alison, as she studied the computer screen. "Aren't you going to sneak off to see your friend, while I'm not looking?"

Alison felt a little grin pull at the corners of her mouth. Big, top-secret alien-fighting agency they might be, but… turned out? They weren't such bad people, after all.

"Thank you," Alison whispered.

And raced off to follow Owen and Jack.


	5. Chapter 5

"I don't know what happened!" Gwen insisted to Jack. "One moment, she was fine, and the next, she collapsed and started screaming!"

Seo was curled up on the floor of the Torchwood cell, body shaking, her hands clutching her head.

"No," Buffy said, stroking Seo's back, trying to calm her down. "It was triggered by what you said. When you got frustrated. Snapped at her."

"What did you say?" Jack asked Gwen.

"I just asked her to tell us what she knows!" Gwen said, raising up her hands in innocence. "That was all!"

Seo curled up, even tighter. Her teeth gritted, her eyes squeezed shut.

"Don't know anything," she muttered, between her teeth. "Just let me go."

Jack looked at Owen.

"That sounded like… an interrogation answer," Jack said.

"Well, like I said," Owen replied. "She does heal remarkably fast. Very little chance we'd actually see any physical signs of torture, by this point."

Gwen spun on Jack. "You don't think she was…?"

"Interrogated and tortured by people wanting her to tell them something dangerous?" said Jack. He folded his arms. "Sure looks that way."

Buffy leaned down, whispering to Seo, soothingly.

Seo's eyes popped open, and she bolted upright, taking in her surroundings, desperation in her eyes.

"Torchwood," she breathed. Her eyes lit up. "Retcon."

Then she sprung to her feet, and bolted out the open door to the cell, before anyone had a chance to register what she was doing.

Jack and the others raced after her.

Seo hadn't gotten more than three steps away before she collided, full-on, with Alison, coming the other way. They both fell to the floor with the impact, and then stared at one another.

Alison catching Seo up by the shoulders. "Seo! What's—"

"No time!" said Seo, gritting her teeth. "I have to forget, Alison. They made me remember! I have to forget!"

But by then, Torchwood had caught up. Had already grabbed at Seo, dragging her back to the cells, every single one of them using all their effort to restrain her, as she struggled against them.

"No more retcon," Jack said, sternly. "That's an order."

"You don't understand!" shouted Seo. Struggling a little harder. "I don't want to remember! It hurts!"

"Forgetting isn't going to make what happened just go away!" Gwen urged her. "You have to remember, so we can stop it."

Alison bolted in after them. Stopped, a short ways away.

"Seo," Buffy said, "you've taken way too much retcon. You're going to kill yourself."

Seo squeezed her eyes shut. "But it hurts," she pleaded. "It hurts to remember. I don't want to remember!"

Jack came over, past Alison, and locked the door. Glanced over at Alison, giving her a pointed look.

"I told you," Jack said. He nodded over at the still struggling Seo. "We're trying to keep her safe."

"I don't know anything!" Seo shouted. "I'm not with anyone! Just let me go! Let me go! Let me—"

She stopped. Then screamed, as she doubled up, clutching her head, agony spreading through her in a single instant.

"Jack," said Tosh, through the earpiece. "Massive energy spike from Seo."

"Come again?" said Gwen.

"Energy spike from Seo?" said Buffy. "But… she doesn't show up on machines."

"It's definitely from her," said Tosh. "No readings, at all, and then… energy spike."

Jack turned to Seo. Stepped back, his face turning blank, as he examined her. Arms crossed. "Hurts to remember…" he muttered.

Alison pushed through them all. Went over to Seo, trying to help her. But was smacked backwards with a surge of strength that Seo didn't even seem to be aware she was using. As Seo writhed, on the ground, the Torchwood agents all letting go of her and stepping back, imitating Jack.

"No," Seo said, through her teeth. "I'm not… not… 88719… really, not 88719, I'm not… not anything! Not Shadow Proclamation… not Atraxi… not from the Agency, not…" She curled up, a little tighter, into a ball. "I don't… I don't know anything. I'm thick. An idiot. Please. Let me go. I don't know…"

"What's 'Atraxi'?" said Alison. She looked at the blank faces of Torchwood, then at Jack, whose face was now filled with something too dark for words. "What's she talking about?"

"It's the police," said Jack, in a low, dark, angry tone. "Whoever's been abducting Seo, they're alien. They think Seo's been sent here by the intergalactic police. To stop them." His eyes narrowed. "That's why they've been doing this to her."

Buffy tensed, as a wave of bitter anger flooded through her.

"Jack, if these aliens are expecting the police," Gwen said, "then whatever they're up to… it's something we need to stop. Right now."

"Oh, whatever they're doing, it's a lot worse than you think," said Jack. "They think she's 88719. And that's bad news for all of us." He turned, raced for the door to the cell. "I better see what Tosh found on that energy spike."

"Why? What's 88719?" Gwen called after him.

"A little like the inter-galactic version of MI6," Jack called back, as he disappeared.

Seo was rocking on the ground, muttering beneath her breath. Muttering a string of information, almost too faintly to hear. Her breath coming far too rapidly, her eyes squeezed shut, as if forcing herself onwards through sheer willpower.

"I'm going to kill them for this," Buffy whispered.

Alison bent down, listening to what Seo was saying. "It's… what we've been learning," she said. "In school. Everything from the past week." She looked up at Buffy. "This must be how she's doing it. How she implants the trigger, so she can remember after they wipe her memory."

Buffy put aside her rage, so she could kneel by Seo, shushing her, trying to calm her down. Seo looked up, suddenly. Grabbed at Buffy, tears in her eyes.

"I just want to forget," she whispered. "Please. It hurts so much when I remember."

Buffy pulled Seo into a tight embrace. Her whole body shaking, as she rocked the child back and forth, in her arms.

Whether shaking from anger or from sorrow, Alison couldn't tell.

* * *

Tosh glanced over her shoulder, as Jack entered the room. "I isolated that energy trace she was giving off. But it seems like…"

Jack analyzed the energy trace, with a somber expression on his face. "A neural implant," he muttered. "Like I thought." He activated his earpiece. "Owen? See if you can find any scarring on Seo's scalp, beneath her hair."

"Also," said Tosh, "I've been tracing some computer hacks in the school database system for Chelsea Downs. Someone's been altering the attendance sheet for a number of different students, during their gym class."

"Any connection?" asked Jack.

"Yes," said Tosh. She typed on the keyboard, and a number of graphs and charts popped up. "They're all physically strong, and… well… mentally? Not very bright." She indicated overall academic performance, the graph showing all of them in the bottom percentile of the school. "These students have performed badly throughout their school experience."

Jack sighed. "Seo must have noticed kids were going missing," he said. "Followed them. And been found out."

"Or been taken, herself," Tosh added. She pulled up some other records, on the computer. "Turns out, Seo never was very good at school. Even at the beginning of the term, before all this started."

Jack leaned over the desk, trying to think it all through, as his eyes rested on the computer screen.

Tosh hesitated. Glanced back over her shoulder at him. "What… you said," she said. "About inter-galactic MI6. How… bad is this alien plot Seo's stumbled upon, if they think she's working for inter-galactic MI6?"

"Minimum crime 88719 investigates," said Jack, "is complete planetary destruction."

Tosh didn't say anything. Just turned back to her work, began typing, again.

"No signs of implantation," came Owen's voice, across the earpiece. "Not even a bald-patch."

Jack cringed. "I was afraid of that."

"You don't think there's an implant?" asked Tosh.

"Oh, there's definitely an implant," said Jack. "This just means it's had time to completely heal over." His eyes flicked over to the monitor of the prison cell. "You got that, Owen?"

Owen looked up at the camera, then dragged a patch of thin air out of the cell. "One brain implant removal coming up."

Jack nodded. Then, as he tapped off his earpiece, he straightened, staring off into the distance, his brow furrowed. He crossed his arms, thinking it all through.

An alien group, out there. Hiding away in that school. Using strong, dumb students as slaves, to build something terrible. Something that Seo had discovered.

Been caught, discovering.

And then they found out she wasn't human. Decided she had to be from the police.

Tortured her, until she couldn't stand to remember what they'd done to her.

This whole time. She'd been wiping her memory, this whole time. Using only logic and her own brilliance to deduce what everyone was talking about, at Torchwood, without having any memory of what had actually happened.

Why hadn't Jack seen it before?

He _should_ have seen it, before! It was his responsibility to stop things like this from happening!

"So these aliens are going to destroy the world," said Tosh. "And the only person who knows how has wiped her own memory." She shook her head. "I wish Seo had at least left us a message before she forgot."

Jack's eyes focused back on Tosh. As the final piece of the puzzle fell into place.

A message.

In a burst of speed, Jack raced back to his office. Slammed open the door, lunged for his desk, grabbing up the exams with trembling hands. Flipping through them, his eyes taking in the numbers and equations and information she'd written down. Taking it all in.

"A message," Jack repeated. "She left us a message."

Because Alison had been right — oh, of course she'd been right! Seo had been _trying_ to get their attention. Focusing all her energy, as she was being tortured, into implanting the whole thing deep, deep into her subconscious.

"Clever, brave little Seo," Jack said. "Never should have doubted you. Not for an instant."

Jack pushed the images of Seo in pain out of his mind, and sat down at his desk, arranging the exams in front of him, and scribbled on a spare sheet of paper, taking down notes, as he flipped through the answers.

Answers… not to the exam questions.

But to _Jack's_ questions.


	6. Chapter 6

"As usual," said Owen, preparing for the surgery, "any anesthetics we have will either wear off far too quickly, or kill you. And since I know you're going to squirm and kick up a fuss when we do this, that means — you're getting the restraints."

Seo hesitated, lying on the operating table. As Owen strapped her down to its surface, making sure there was absolutely no way she could struggle.

Her hands clenched the sides of the table. "Is… it going to hurt?" she asked.

Owen sighed, finishing with the restraints, and then turning to prepare the medical equipment beside him. "Yes," he said, pointedly. "It's going to kill. When we're getting that implant out, it's going to activate, stimulating every nerve center inside your head. You're going to scream, in pain and agony, beg me for death a thousand times. And when you're done, all you'll have to show for it is a really nasty scar across the top of your head and a headache the size of London." He picked up a scalpel. "That make you feel any better?"

"You haven't performed surgery on a lot of live aliens, have you?" Alison said.

"She wants a bloody brilliant doctor," Owen replied, "she gets to put up with the bedside manner."

Seo swallowed. Glanced over at Buffy, who came over, and held Seo's hand. Gave her a kind, reassuring smile.

As Owen made the first incision.

* * *

Jack raced into the medical bay, almost the moment that Seo was done. She was now sitting on the operating table, rubbing the spot on her head, a grim look on her face.

Owen, in the meantime, held the shielded vial in which he'd placed the neural implant, in his hand.

The moment Jack spotted it, he froze. A completely unreadable expression on his face. "That's… about what I was expecting," he said, his voice filled with a hint of biting anger.

"Why?" asked Buffy. "What is it?"

Jack snatched up the vial from Owen. "Neural implant," said Jack. "Designed to act as a tracker system, as well as a means to permanently erase certain memories — even in beings of higher intelligence." He stared at it, his eyes icy, bitter. "It can also be used… as… a torture implement. An interrogation tool."

"But it's a machine," said Alison. "Machines can't usually touch Seo."

"Except this one," Jack admitted. "It resonates on a multi-dimensional frequency. Used in alien prisons that housed higher-dimensional prisoners. 12th dimensional beings, that kind of thing. To keep tabs on them." He shook his head. "It should never have fallen into these aliens' hands."

"So how did it?" Owen demanded of Jack, cleaning off his medical tools. "You know where they got it from. How did it wind up with them?"

Buffy looked between Owen and Jack. "Where…?"

Jack's hand fell down by his side. "This neural implant fell through the Cardiff rift," he told her, "four months ago. It was being stored in the Torchwood archives."

"The aliens raided Torchwood?" said Buffy.

Alison gave a small, proud grin. "Told you."

"Alison was right," said Jack. "They've been breaking in here about once a month, stealing our technology, retcon, and somehow managing to completely cover their tracks. Tosh confirmed it."

"But… I thought that wasn't possible!" said Buffy.

"It shouldn't be," Jack agreed. "But they found a way." He crossed his arms. "And, if I've deciphered the codes and notes that Seo put together on her exams — these aliens are using our technology to create… one of the worst weapons I can imagine."

Alison raised her eyebrows. "What kind of weapon?"

"A bomb," said Jack. "An inter-dimensional bomb. Designed to not just completely wipe out a planet, but to destroy every single person living there. Creating a blast that burns across the entire planet's surface, half melting everyone it comes across, before the shockwave forces them back — just enough to be trapped on the edge of time and space. Eternally in pain, forever."

Buffy squeezed Seo's hand, as her eyes widened in utter horror. She clearly couldn't remember a thing.

"They must be using the kids at your school to assemble it," said Jack. "Slave labor. Keeping everyone docile, using drugs and retcon. Limiting themselves to the strongest, least bright of the bunch, just to make sure the retcon stuck." His eyes fell on Seo. "But… turns out… Seo was never much good at school, even at the beginning of the term."

"It wasn't my fault," said Seo, her eyes on the ground. "School is hard."

"She doesn't show any work, when solving equations," said Alison. "And she has a completely different concept of the universe than we do."

Jack nodded.

"So… I must have worked out what these aliens were doing," Seo guessed. She frowned. "Stopped them. Sabotage. I must have. It would have been how they caught me. How they found out I was alien. Why they thought I was from the police. And why they put the implant in my head."

"Worse than that," said Jack. "That implant's been embedded in your head for a while, now. Since you can remember Gwen, I'm guessing it was implanted shortly after she arrived. Which means… whoever these aliens are, they thought you were 88719 for at least a month, and still haven't killed you, yet. Didn't erase all your knowledge about inter-dimensional bombs, just the memories that included what they were building and what they were planning."

Leaving only memories of pain, torture, and agony, left behind to trigger whenever she asked too many questions about her memory loss, tried to overcome it, or tried to reason her way past it.

Hence, the self-retconning.

To make sure she _couldn't_ remember. Even if she wanted to.

"I'm guessing," Jack continued, "that means they've built a bomb that doesn't work. And they're trying to force you to make it functional."

Seo said nothing.

The room completely silent around her, as they all absorbed this.

Then Tosh came racing into the medical bay, breathless, leaning in the doorway. "Jack," she said. "The aliens. At that school. They've caught Ianto."


	7. Chapter 7

Ianto had really just been there to investigate the cafeteria food. Which had very clearly been drugged. No doubt about that.

But then he'd noticed a few other things that seemed wrong. Suspicious. He'd snooped around, a little more. Noticed a secret door, in the basement of the school, that had been shielded using a holographic generator that he remembered should be in the Torchwood Three archives.

The sound of an alien gun, at his back, stopped him where he stood.

"Don't move," a woman's voice commanded him.

* * *

"Torchwood," muttered the man — no, not man, he was a bit too tall and thin to be human, his features all a little off. Wrong. "All this time, we thought it was 88719. And it was just Torchwood!"

Ianto had been tied to a chair, in the center of the sealed-off section of the basement. Was now trying to look like he was every bit the defenseless human being they believed he was, as he covertly attempted to untie himself.

"Careful, Wtarfich," said the woman, calmly, studying Ianto as she leaned against the far wall. "Just because he's Torchwood doesn't mean _she_ is."

"The tracker has been extracted," said Wtarfich. "In Cardiff. At Torchwood. Whoever and whatever she is, she has something to do with them."

"She's an alien. Torchwood hunts aliens. They picked her up. It's only natural." The woman kept her eyes fixed on Ianto. A frown creasing her face. "The girl's biology was unique, remember? Genetically altered to be imperceptible to scans. That's classic 88719. Besides. You remember what we were told. The girl matches the description to a tee."

"She's not human, but _this_ one is," said Wtarfich. He aimed his gun right at Ianto's head. "And he knows too much. One shot, Tpytere. One shot, and—"

"—you'd have every Torchwood agent down here, after us," said Tpytere. She walked over to him, took the gun out of his hands. A small smile crawled up her lips, as she continued to study Ianto. "No. No, don't kill him. If Torchwood's holding the 88719 spy in their custody — I think this human could work to our advantage."

Ianto had nearly finished undoing the ropes.

"You want to arrange a swap?" said Wtarfich.

"Oh, nothing so mundane," Tpytere dismissed. She knelt down by Ianto, so she was looking right into his eyes. "I think we should tell him the truth. About who we are. What we're doing, here." The smile grew a little wider. "And when we're done… I'm guessing he'll want to help us."

* * *

"We have to help them," Ianto said, on the phone. "There's something malfunctioning — a propulsion system. And, unfortunately, we'll have to fix it for them. I see no alternative."

Jack was starting to get the feeling that the best thing, for all of them, was to jump in the Torchwood van and race off to London, so they could dismantle the bomb themselves before this got out of hand.

"Yan," said Jack. "I know what they're planning. They're—"

"Building an inter-dimensional bomb," said Ianto. "To destroy an entire planet, and kill everyone on that planet's surface. They told me."

"So why—?"

"Because the planet they're trying to destroy," said Ianto, " _isn't_ Earth."

Jack said nothing.

"The bomb's already built and armed," Ianto continued. "The propulsion system is the last thing they need to remove it from Earth. If we help them, the bomb is removed from the planet. Everyone here survives. If not…"

"Then every second we wait, we're risking our own extinction," Jack said.

"Exactly."

Jack didn't speak for a long moment. A very long moment.

"Sir," said Ianto. "They also told me who they are. Where they came from. Why they want revenge. And… I think they're just desperate enough to set off that bomb, themselves, here, if we don't tell them everything."

* * *

"What?!" shouted Gwen. "Help them destroy a planet? You can't be serious!"

"They captured Ianto," Tosh reminded her.

"And let him go!" said Gwen. "Ianto's fine. But Seo's been standing up to torture to stop them from doing this, and I think she's right. I don't care if it's Earth or not. We're not destroying any planets."

Jack stood, nearby, his arms crossed. Leaning against the far wall. "I know what they are," he confessed. "Who they are. Ianto's right. Earth shouldn't be involved in this. It would be better to just let them have the information they want. And let them get on with it."

Buffy put an arm around Seo's shoulders, protectively. Leveling a dark stare at Jack.

"I agree with Gwen," said Buffy. "We can't do this, Jack."

Beside the two of them, Alison was sleeping the peaceful sleep of the recently retconned. Jack knew he had to get her out of here before she woke up.

But he had time.

Tosh looked away. Not answering, but clearly not wanting to go through with this, either.

"Who are the aliens?" asked Seo. A curiosity shining through her, cutting across everything else. "Where are they from? Why are they desperate?"

"They're called the Vvaptroshurn," Jack said. "Their planet just went through a massive civil war. A war that was only won because one side almost completely annihilated the other. The two Vvaptroshurn we're seeing here were from the losing side. They must have managed to escape, using the Cardiff rift. Arrived on Earth, and began plotting their revenge against the people who'd murdered their families."

Gwen sat down on the bench. Taking all this in.

"The people still living on Vvaptroshia aren't innocent," said Jack. "The people on this planet are. We have to remember that."

"Those two Rapture-Shorn things tortured my daughter," Buffy gritted, through her teeth. "A _child_. Nothing makes that okay. Whatever they want — I'm not giving it to them."

Jack didn't answer.

"Oh, thank you, Buffy," said Owen. "Whole planet's at risk because of an alien revenge scheme that shouldn't involve us, at all, but… no, you're right. These aliens are evil. We all just better stick to our morals and not help them, leaving this planet to die, instead."

Buffy's eyes narrowed, but she didn't reply to this.

"Seo found out what they were doing, and sabotaged the bomb," Jack added. "They think they've undone whatever she did, but it's anyone's guess if they actually gotten all of it."

"Which means we've got a world-destroying bomb on our hands," said Gwen, "that could go off at any second. And isn't working the way it should be."

"This keeps getting better and better," Owen muttered.

"Couldn't we agree to help them?" Tosh offered. "Then reprogram the propulsion system to take the bomb somewhere else?"

"And risk it hitting a planet that's equally innocent and undeserving?" Jack asked. He shook his head. "I'm not doing that." He shrugged. "Besides. These two Vvaptroshurn Ianto found are already twitchy enough about Torchwood. They'd be looking over our shoulders the whole time. And if they saw anything suspicious…"

"Kerpow," said Owen.

Buffy hugged Seo to her, a little tighter.

"So that's our choice," Gwen muttered. "Destroy our planet. Or destroy theirs."

Jack didn't answer.

His eyes trained on Seo.

His entire body rigid. Unmoving. Almost not daring to breathe.

Tosh began packing up her things. "I'll go," she said. "Take the risk. I'm certain I can figure out some way to make this work to our advantage, or—"

"But they didn't ask for you," Seo whispered. "Any of you." Her eyes turned on Jack. "Did they?"

Everyone stopped. Looked at Seo.

"Seo," Jack warned.

"I'm the supposed alien spy," said Seo. "And they don't know how clever Tosh is. They think humans are primitives. Or they'd have considered Torchwood a threat from the very beginning."

Tosh hesitated.

"They're not bargaining for Torchwood to help them," said Seo. "Torchwood hunts aliens. That's its reputation. They want you lot… to get me to talk. Then hand me over." She let herself out of Buffy's grip. Stood up, straight and tall, eyes fixed on Jack. "So. I'm ready to talk. Hand me over."


	8. Chapter 8

Jack sat down at the desk of his office. His face cast in shadows. Staring straight ahead. Not moving.

Buffy was driving Alison back to London.

Seo had remained here. Behind. Surrounded and guarded by his own Torchwood team, as they all tried to figure out what to do about this. Tried to figure out what decision to make.

Owen was right. In the end, it should be an easy decision. The humans on Earth were innocent. The people of Vvaptroshia weren't.

But Jack just kept sitting there. In his office. Staring straight ahead. Unable to move. Unable to come to a decision. Unable to make the final choice to destroy an entire world.

A throat cleared, in the doorway.

Jack glanced over. Gwen was standing there. In the doorway to his office. Her hand resting just above the doorframe.

"We have to let her try," Gwen said, in a quiet voice.

Jack didn't answer. Looked away from Gwen.

He'd been very clear on this.

No way was he letting this plan of Seo's go ahead. Absolutely not.

"It could work," said Gwen.

"Only if she made it convincing," Jack snapped. "They've been torturing her for a while, now, and she hasn't caved. She can't give in too easily, or they'll know it's a trap."

"She wants to," said Gwen. "Jack, it's the only way. To save billions of lives. Two entire planets."

Jack buried his face in his hands. "Save the lives of billions of murderers," he muttered. "War criminals. By purposely torturing one innocent girl. Maybe even killing her."

Gwen said nothing. It was clear she felt torn about it, as well.

"She's been self-medicating retcon," Jack said. "To get rid of the memories of what they did to her. That's how much pain she's been in. And you're asking me to put her through it, again."

Silence from Gwen.

" _She's_ not asking you," came a small voice, from just behind Gwen.

Gwen stepped aside, surprised, to reveal Seo, standing there, looking out at them, a determined expression on her face.

" _I_ am," said Seo.

"No," Jack told her, automatically. He shuffled some papers around on his desk, so he didn't have to meet her eyes.

"It's the only way they'd be convinced," said Seo. "Just hand me over. Tell them you caught me knowing only that I was an alien. Had no idea who I was or what was going on. Investigated that school because you thought the Vvaptroshurn were my allies. Tell them that… to save the Earth, you're fully prepared to turn me over to them, along with—"

"I said no," Jack snapped.

"You can retcon me, afterwards," said Seo. "I won't remember a thing."

Jack crossed his arms. Looking up at her. "Seo, retcon is meant for humans. I have absolutely no idea what long term effects it would have on someone like you. I never intended to use it on you, and you should never have used it on yourself."

Seo said nothing for a long time. A very long time.

"The Vvaptroshurn massacred one another," said Jack. "The universe is better off without them. I'm not going to let you torture and potentially kill yourself just to save them." He gritted his teeth. "And I'm not giving you access to that… _thing_. Not again."

"I could control the implant before," said Seo. "You said, yourself, I used it to plant the memory triggers. Tosh and I think… if you just gave them the right set of programs… they could use it to actually read my mind, directly. And I could control the implant, again. Make the Vvaptroshurn read what I _want_ them to read. Not the truth."

"I'm not handing you over to them!" Jack shouted, jumping to his feet and almost knocking over his desk. "That's final!"

Seo met his eyes with her own.

"Owen will," Seo whispered. She swallowed. "And… you can't stop me."

Jack marched over to her, putting his hands on her shoulders, looking straight into her eyes.

For a few seconds, neither of them said anything. Both just staring at one another.

Then he sighed, and stepped away.

"Fine," he said, taking a few more steps back. "You're right. You win. You want to go, Owen wants to take you, Tosh wants to help, and I can't stop any of you." He tapped a few buttons on his wristband. "So I've got no choice."

Seo's eyes grew wide, as she lunged for him. But too slow.

Half-way there, she crumpled in on herself. Then fell against the ground, her body limp, unconscious.

Gwen looked between Jack and Seo. "What—?"

"Triggered a sudden, shifting bombardment of chronon particles right about where she was standing," said Jack. "Overwhelmed her time sense. Won't last long, though." He pulled on his military greatcoat. "Better freeze her until I get back."

"Jack," Gwen said, shaking her head. "She's right. You can't just help them. It's murder. You'll—"

"They're expecting an undercover agent for galactic police here on Earth," said Jack. "Either 88719. Or… someone from the Agency." He flicked his eyes down to his wrist strap. "Whoever they're expecting… it doesn't have to be her."

Gwen met Jack's eyes with her own.

"Freeze her," said Jack, as he stepped out of his office. "I don't want her following me."

* * *

Buffy had only offered to take Alison back home, without Seo nearby, because she wanted the chance to get back to London, alone.

She didn't care who these aliens were. Or what had happened, on their home-world.

They'd tortured a child. Buffy's child.

Purposely and cruelly tortured her, until she couldn't stand to remember. Until she broke down and dosed herself with retcon, to make herself forget.

It was Slayer-Mom time.

Definitely.

It took a while to clear things up with the Korjensky's. And then more time for Buffy to duck back home and grab up her weapons.

But, finally, Buffy was here.

She crept into the school. It was night, yeah, but she bet the aliens were still around. Still lurking around their bomb, trying to make it work.

She yanked the door off its hinges, and entered the darkened school.

* * *

"Wtarfich," said Tpytere, studying the surveillance monitors, warily. "We have a problem."

They had, naturally, silenced all the human alarms, the moment that the woman had entered the building. Human police were morons. And far too inquisitive. It was always better if Tpytere and Wtarfich dealt with these kinds of things, themselves.

But the problem was… _who_ had entered the building.

Wtarfich leaned down. Stared at the monitor, in amazement. "But that… looks exactly like…"

"And she turns up as human on all scans, even though she's clearly strong enough to bust in that door," said Tpytere. "Once again. Classic 88719. Either they don't show up on scans at all, or they trick the scans into thinking they're the dominant life form."

Wtarfich said nothing. Absorbing this with shock on his face. "We… got it wrong," he breathed.

"Yes, we got it wrong!" Tpytere agreed. "You heard the description Saxon gave us for the 88719 spy. You saw the photo! It _wasn't_ the girl!" She hissed, wincing, as she compared the photo to the image on the screen. "We took the child, Wtarfich. When we should have been looking for the mother."

"You mean… that whole time… that girl… was actually just a young girl," Wtarfich said. A feeling of utter horror washing over him. "A kid who really _didn't_ know anything. Everything we did to her, and she was…"

"Exactly what she said," said Tpytere. "Innocent."

For a few moments, both were silent. Realizing, with guilt and horror and shame, what they'd actually done.

Wtarfich stepped back. His eyes falling on the massive bomb that lay just a short ways away. "What has this war done to us, Tpytere? What has it turned us into?"

"Not the war," said Tpytere, her voice angry. Cold. Bitter. " _Them_. Those… butchers. Those murderers! They deserve to suffer forever for their crimes."

Wtarfich nodded. Remembering, just as Tpytere was remembering.

Remembering the night the other side had marched into their homes, grabbed their children away from them, and shot the kids in the head. Remembering the other side's 'terror parades', marching prisoners through the street and demanding answers, before publicly executing them.

Remembering the blood. The death. The devastation.

"What we're about to do can never come close to what they did to us," said Tpytere. "88719 won't understand that. You remember what Saxon said."

Yes. When he'd helped them break into Torchwood.

Get everything they needed.

Told them about the intergalactic policewoman who was looking for them.

Saxon had understood. He'd told them they were right to do what they were doing. Told them that they _should_ get revenge. He'd given them the blue-prints for the bomb and everything.

"If this 88719 agent's that girl's mum," said Wtarfich, "and we've just tortured her daughter… she's not going to hear us out. She'll never hear us out. It's take them in dead or alive, at 88719, and she's not planning on taking us in alive."

Tpytere got up from her desk. Armed herself, clicking together an alien gun, slinging the strap over her shoulder.

"Then we kill her," said Tpytere. "We have no choice."


	9. Chapter 9

Buffy spun around, guard up, as someone burst through the door. Flipped forward, kicking the gun out of the creature's hand, twisting him around and slamming him, face down, against the floor.

"You know, I'm used to women jumping on me," the man said. "But this is something else."

Buffy blinked. Then grimaced, letting him go and stepping away, as she realized… it was Jack.

"Okay, what are you doing here?" Buffy demanded.

"I could ask the same of you," said Jack, getting up off the floor, and trying to figure out where his revolver had gotten to. "Should have known you had a reason for wanting to take Alison home by yourself."

"They don't trust us, and we can't tamper with the bomb while they're breathing down our necks," said Buffy. "There's a simple solution to this problem: take the aliens out, first. I just didn't want my daughter to see—"

She was cut off, as Jack leapt forward, knocking her out of the way of a bolt of light that shot towards them. The beam struck Jack in the chest, and he howled, then collapsed, dead, to the ground.

Buffy leapt back to her feet, eyes darting around and making out two alien figures in the darkness. Both carrying guns.

Oh, they were so dead.

She waited until they both had fired, again, then leapt up, through the air, the shots whizzing harmlessly beneath her, and flipped to land just in front of Wtarfich.

He panicked, swung at her with the butt of his gun, but she grabbed his arm, broke it at the elbow, yanked the gun and continued its arc to hit Wtarfich right in the chin.

Hearing the energy discharge behind her, she dodged out of the way of Tptyere's shot, swerving around to face her. Wtarfich's gun in her hand, pointed at the alien woman.

Wtarfich, behind her, staggered from Buffy's attack, but managed to stay upright. Rushed her, leaping out to tackle her to the ground, but Buffy threw the gun over her shoulder and hit him squarely in the temple with the butt, the impact knocking him out.

"You've given up your weapon," Tpytere remarked.

Buffy stepped forward. Like that mattered to her at all. "You tortured my daughter," Buffy said. Feeling all the rage inside bubble up to the surface.

Tpytere trembled, a little, under the ferocity of Buffy's gaze.

"You watched her screaming in agony," Buffy gritted through her teeth, "and didn't care. A girl who might have sympathized with you. Offered you a chance to live here, on Earth, in peace. And you tortured her without a second thought."

Tpytere fired the gun, but Buffy vaulted herself through the air and tore the energy recharging mechanism from the top of Tpytere's gun, effectively disarming it.

She landed. Not far away. And smashed it underfoot.

"I'm not merciful, like she is," said Buffy. "I don't do chances or better ways." She rushed at Tpytere, trying to punch out, but Tpytere ducked at the last minute.

Wtarfich groaned, as he recovered, on the ground, beside Jack. He tried to get up, but found himself too weak. Then looked over at Jack. And froze. His eyes going wide, as they rested on Jack's wrist.

"Tpytere," hissed Wtarfich, gesturing at Jack. "The wrist strap. This one's… Agency."

"There are two groups after us?!" shouted Tpytere, dodging a Buffy-kick. Tpytere shook her head, twisting around and ramming Buffy in the back with the butt of her gun. "Well, he's dead, now. One less thing to worry about."

Jack gasped back to life, jerking upright.

Tpytere froze. Her mouth dropping open, her eyes on Jack. "But… but that's not—"

Buffy hurled a punch at Tpytere, which struck her in the stomach. Tpytere staggered back, doubling over, but before she could respond, Buffy flipped through the air, leveling a kick that forced Tpytere up against the back wall.

With one thrust of a concealed sword, Buffy severed Tpytere's head from her shoulders.

"You… you killed her," said Wtarfich. "You murderer!"

"She deserved it," Buffy replied, turning on her heel. "And so do you."

Wtarfich pointed his gun at Buffy.

Jack stepped in the way of the shot. Arms extended. "Wanna have another go?"

Wtarfich hesitated. His mind clearly still reeling about how Jack could be alive, when he so obviously should be dead.

The blade of Buffy's sword hurled through the air, just barely avoiding Jack. And ran right through Wtarfich's head.

Jack observed the two felled aliens. Trying to decide if he really felt any pity, at all, towards them. These two aliens, who'd been the victims of a cruel, miserable war. Tried to commit an atrocity. And tortured a girl to do it.

He turned back to Buffy. Grinned. "Good aim."

Buffy just stayed by the back wall, alien blood splashed across her, eyes still focused and angry, fixed on the two dead aliens.

"Do you know how to disarm this bomb thing?" Buffy asked Jack.

"If not," said Jack, taking her by the arm, and escorting her down to the basement, "Tosh is only a phone call away."

"Good," said Buffy. "Because Seo's never setting foot in this school, again." She shook her head. "I have _so_ had it with Hell-Schools!"

* * *

The air rippled, as Buffy and Jack left the room, headed to the basement to disarm the bomb.

Seemingly out of nowhere, an alien appeared into the empty room. An alien with ribbed magenta skin, wearing a cloaking device, the three eyes on his head taking in what had just happened.

Activated his wrist communicator.

"Agent YZTH calling 88719," he said. "Found the two Vvaptroshurn on Sol-3. Both dead. Taking them in, now."

"Copy that, Agent YZTH," replied the voice on the other end. "And the explosive device?"

"Just checked it," said the 88719 agent. "It's a dud. Whoever gave them the plans to construct that bomb never wanted it armed in the first place."

"Any sign who gave them the plans?" said the voice on the other end.

"Should be able to get a trace. Let me check." The agent tapped at a few buttons on the device implanted into his arm. "Moved off-world, looks like," he said, with a laugh. "I'll follow the trace. Pick the criminal up. He won't get far."

"Transfer the bomb and the prisoners to our headquarters on frequency delta nine," said 88719. "Then get after the source of the blueprints. We don't know what else he could be planning."

"Understood," said the agent.

With a few more presses of buttons, the agent shimmered into the air.

And the bomb, along with the two aliens, disappeared.

* * *

"Oh, well, look at you," said Harold Saxon, surveying CCTV footage of Buffy, leaving the school, Captain Jack beside her. "Elizabeth. All grown up. With a protégée of your own — Alison Korjensky." He grinned. "Seems you're harder to kill than I thought."

Lucy came in, carrying a tray of tea things.

"Still," Saxon continued. "I love a challenge."

* * *

"It definitely _wouldn't_ have worked," Tosh confirmed, looking over the blueprints for the bomb. The bomb that had just disappeared, when Buffy and Jack had been looking at it, swept up by the real 88719. Tosh shook her head. "But that doesn't make sense, Jack! Why would Seo have stood up to that kind of torture, if she could have fixed their propulsion system without destroying anyone?"

Jack's eyes were unfocused, a haunted look in them.

"I guess… she thought the bomb worked," said Jack.

.

.

.

* * *

_Two weeks earlier…_

* * *

Seo knew the bomb would never work. She knew that, instinctively.

Just like she knew they'd wipe her memory. Just like she knew she needed to make sure Jack and the others understood that someone had broken into Torchwood. Just like she knew she needed to make sure Jack and the others disposed of this bomb, safely — dud or no.

But every time Wtarfich and Tpytere brought her down here and started in on her, again, Seo could never remember… why. Why she was struggling. Why she was putting up a fight. Why she was resisting them. The bomb wouldn't work. She could fix the propulsion system, easy, without hurting anyone. Then try to find a way to escape before they killed her for being… whatever they thought she was.

Get the implant out of her head, and they'd never be able to trace her. Easy.

So why was she resisting? Why…?

But then she'd always catch sight of that photo.

And know… who they were mistaking her for.

Seo had killed Mom once, before. In her own world. She wasn't going to let her die, again. Wasn't going to let that happen, here.

"I love you, Mom," she breathed.

As they started in at her, again.


End file.
